Esoteric Yoga: Union & Listening to My Body

I have been participating in Esoteric Yoga group sessions since 2008 and what a journey this has been… I will never forget my first session.

I was attending a Universal Medicine retreat with around 100 others when I was introduced to Esoteric Yoga and to the fact that truly yoga is about union.

I held the belief that yoga was a sort of ‘cool’ and ‘spiritual’ exercise modality or practise which I had on past occasions attempted to take up – without success. I always thought that I was somehow lacking in the spirituality (and flexibility) required for devoting myself to yoga…

So I lay on my mat, ready for the yoga session to begin – and I waited, and waited and waited…

When would we start? Did I miss something? What was taking so long?

I lay there expectantly with my mind going in circles and my body wanting to fidget – and NOTHING happening. It was an uncomfortable and somewhat frustrating experience and seemed to go on forever. Eventually the hour was over – and after some exposing discussion I was left with the realisation that instead of choosing to connect to myself and to my body, instead of experiencing any kind of union during that time, I had spent the session waiting for someone to tell me what to do, for something to deliver the yoga experience to me….. what an eye opener!

There were further Esoteric Yoga sessions during the 5 day retreat and that introductory session had shown me something not to be forgotten – so each session I embraced the opportunity to recognise that this was about me being with me, first and foremost – as challenging as this would prove to be with so little distraction available!

The sessions were not all delivered like that first one. They included occasional suggestions about connecting to and feeling various parts of our bodies: to begin with it seemed impossible to get my head around what focussing on feeling from a part of my body even meant! There were even some gentle movements – thank goodness – I had no idea that actually being present and lying still in my own body could seem so PAINFUL.

I was learning something already through this introduction to Esoteric Yoga: exposing to myself how I had come to place so much importance on my mind and so little on listening to what was going on in my body. So much was being revealed to me about the way I had allowed my mind to drive my body through life… and boy was it uncomfortable!

But there was something really special happening too: after each session I felt more deeply relaxed, calm and solidly connected to my whole being than I could remember. I was really enjoying this feeling. By the end of the 5 days my love for Esoteric Yoga and its powerful simplicity was born.

“this was about me being with me, first and foremost.” To me this is why Esoteric Yoga is so needed today, we are not with ourselves at all and not enjoying or even aware of the beauty within ourselves, or the constant communication from our bodies asking us to take more loving care of ourselves.

In Esoteric Yoga, the union is first with ourselves. And when given so much space with very little movement to just be and feel our body, it exposes much about how we have been living. To me, this modality is about deepening intimacy with myself.

In a world of goals, achievements, results, and outcomes we can see, we could easily dismiss the power on offer in Esoteric Yoga because it’s an inward movement back to ourselves and our body, and a change to the energetic quality we can feel within ourselves and our movements. An amazing modality.

We have many opportunities to connect and live with that connection. We choose to separate again and again, the choice is not only born because this world makes it almost impossible to live in connection, but because for eons we have chosen to be that way, our momentum is too strong, our behaviours too ingrained and before we know it, oops we’re back into our nominal ways.

Helen, I can very much relate to what you’ve shared. I too remember wanting my first few Esoteric Yoga to end quickly. I felt so uncomfortable because I was able to feel the tension in my body, the restlessness and the need to be moving or doing something. Allowing my body to feel the stillness brought up the realisation that I had been using my body in drive and hardness. By my 4th session, I felt the expansion in my body and the power of stillness was incredible.

I can relate very much about how I gave during the most part of my life more importance to the outside world than to my inner feelings. Esoteric Yoga reminds me that what I feel inside matters and this is making a significant change in the way I see myself and the regard in which I treat my body today. A change that invites me to appreciate the beauty inside me more and to embrace the communication with this inner space that was denied for so long.

Such a beautiful experience with Esoteric Yoga Helen. Love the smplicity and clarity the way your body revealed the Truth about how you were living. And the signifcant change you could make thanks to be open to receive it.

Very well said Inma. Esoteric Yoga offers us space to feel and connect to our body and by listening to what it is communicating to us, sometimes it can feel very uncomfortable because it shows us the truth.

When I did my first Esoteric Yoga session it really highlighted to me that I was living so disconnected from my body, and my mind was really racing. I felt many things in my body that I hadn’t been aware of, basically experiences, traumas and hurts were all stored in my body but I’d cut myself off from feeling these things by living in my mind. Over time Esoteric Yoga has supported me to redevelop my connection to myself, to my whole self, body and being, and to live from this in daily life. What it’s meant for me is more awareness of how I really feel, and an ability to respond to this and to my body in a caring and supportive way.

I relate to the early days of Esoteric Yoga as having lived in the attic of my house. The yoga gets us to come downstairs and realise we’ve left the windows and doors open. It’s sometimes not pretty to face what we’ve allowed in our absence but eventually the house gets cleared out and becomes a joy to live in compared to the stuffy attic.

I have had some memorable mind-trips in Esoteric Yoga sessions. Proving how much I have used my mind to fantasize and mentally establish a truth I wish for realising it actually hurts and feels disgusting the state you leave your body in = emptiness. It is not a pleasant feeling to feel.

The more I practice Esoteric Yoga the more obvious theres a feeling of my whole nervous system buzzing and a disturbance when I go off with thoughts that aren’t focused what I am doing in the present moment.

I can totally relate Helen. In esoteric yoga you have to literally sit with yourself … and all your lifestyle choices you have made up until that moment. I have to say that can be both mighty uncomfortable and confronting sometimes!

A beautiful reminder of how difficult it can be just to be with ourselves, and how we either want to fidget or allow our head to run away with us, it is truly wonderful to connect deeply within ourselves and feel the power stillness provides

Union, what is it truly? Have we been living in union, or have we found our comfortableness in our individual ways?
Our current state of health, wellbeing and togetherness exposes the answer of this very question. That is lying not.

I attended an Esoteric Yoga session a few months ago in a very large group. What I felt in my body was a lot of aches and pains which I was not aware of before. I spend my entire session releasing the tension in my body and afterwards, I was much more settled in my body and realised how much tension I was in prior to the session. I find Esoteric Yoga really supports me to have more body awareness and supports me with reconnecting to the stillness in my body.

Esoteric Yoga helps us restore our connection to our Body from a point of godliness and ancient knowing. It is by our movements that we develop deeper forms of love, hence as we live in this body we need to make it a temple available for everyday more and more love.

Esoteric Yoga certainly offers us the opportunity to stop and feel what quality it is that we are connecting to and being moved by through our day. It is amazing to feel that it is very possible to move and live with greater connection to our body, being and the exquisiteness of our stillness within.

By-and-large yoga is meant to be an activity that takes a specific shape based on us executing movements we have to listen to do. Yet, in esoteric yoga we learn that movements only prepare us to feel our own stillness and body.

You make a great distinction here Eduardo about the difference between posture based yoga and Esoteric Yoga. It’s highlighted to me the union Esoteric Yoga offers us to our soul and how that then can become the source of our movements in life.

We can become experts at covering up and denying what we are feeling through endless behaviours and activities. Esoteric Yoga asks us to drop the guard, stop pretending and actually feel what is within us.

During Esoteric Yoga, my body always shows me where I am at. There was one session that my mind kept coming in to distract, while the one before, my body so easily surrendered that afterwards I felt this profound stillness that stayed with me for some time.

Feeling rather exposed here – it is so true that I wait and wait for an instruction, to be told what to do, how to do things – because I want to get it right. And while that ‘waiting’ is happening, I am not even here, I have left ourselves, preoccupied with thoughts.

I have a 6 week block of Esoteric Yoga at the moment and finding each one being different to the last. For example in showing me where I am at in connection with my body, so much awareness, and after each session I am always more connected with my being which has a profound impact for the rest of my day in regards to how I move, eat, talk, the thoughts I have – everything.

In allowing my mind to drive my body, even when tired, I would often override what my body was telling me. It took time with Esoteric Yoga to learn to listen and allow my body to show me how it wanted to move, rather than me pushing it to move. In this way I felt harmony within my body and connected to a natural rhythm and flow that felt steady and supportive.

Likewise, my experience of Esoteric Yoga has been that I can find it frustrating that there is not more happening (my own lack of stillness), or fall asleep (my own exhaustion), or not really listen to the instructions (my being a bit checked out). All very revealing of how I am living. But the after effect is always the same, a deeper stillness inside that I treasure as it reintroduces me to my quality.